Those $10m Photos May Not Be Art—and Now There Are Doubts About the Truth of the Sales

Peter Lik is something of a Thomas Kinkade of photographers. But Folks in Lik’s native Australia are casting doubt on his claims to have sold the world’s most expensive photograph. Lik’s press release does offer an attorney who will confirm the private sale but, to date, there’s no independent confirmation of the private sale of three photographs totaling nearly $10m with the one priced at $6.5m. Here’s why the Sydney Morning Herald suggests we be skeptical of the sale:

The work was sold privately to an unknown buyer and no documentary proof beyond a press release of the sale appears to have been provided.

Lik’s work has been ignored by major public art galleries and dismissed by critics.

When his photos have gone up for public auction, they have not sold well. Australia’s most famous photographer Bill Henson sells for nowhere near Lik’s astronomical prices.

As art consultant David Hulme said in 2012: “If I was advising a client on a $1 million art purchase, I would be extremely wary of purchasing a Peter Lik photograph, however good it is. This is because Peter Lik’s photographs have no secondary market presence or value.” […]

It is not entirely impossible that Lik pocketed the millions of dollars he claims for Phantom. His sales staff are apparently very good at singing his praises and he has galleries in places like Las Vegas, where there is more money than sense.